Character:

::Raphael:: (7 HS 19 Vitality) (Air, Good, Life) E Commit 1 foundation: Your attack gets +X speed. X equals your attacks damage minus its speed (Min. 0)

Actions (4):

4 Dual-Wielding (4/4) (Good) E: Your attack gets -X speed and +X damage. X cannot be greater than your attack's printed speed.

Assets (2):

1 Seal of Cessation (3/3 +2L) (Infinity) R Destroy this card: After an ability or action card is played, negate its effects.

1 Seal of Alluvium (3/3 +2L) (Infinity) E Commit: Your attack gets +2 damage. This attack cannot gain any more bonuses to its damage.

Attacks (15):

2 Exploding Death (8/2 3M9; Throw) (Good)

2 Thunderbolt (7/3 4M7 +2M; Ranged, Reversal) (Good, Air)

4 Squalambrato Concerto (6/2 3M5; Multiple 1, Weapon) (Good, Air, Life) E: If this attack deals damage, your next attack this turn gets +3 speed

2 Henkoyuki (5/2 6M5 +2M; Ranged) (Good, Life) E: If this attack deals damage, the next attack you play this turn gets +2 speed

1 Rolling Barcelona Attack (6/2 4L7 +2L; Weapon) (Good, Air)

1 Wrath of Heaven (8/2 6M12; Combo (Reversal, Reversal)) (Good) Enhances on the card are irrelevent to this deck

1 Feline Spike (7/1 4H8 +1L; Multiple 2, Reversal, Stun 2) (Good, Air)

2 Death Puppet (8/3 6M9; Raphael Only, Throw) (Good, Air, Life) E: If this attack is not blocked, the next attack you play this turn gets +X speed. X equals that attacks damage minus its speed.

Foundations (35):

4 Soul of Ling-Sheng Su (2/6 +2H) (Air) R Commit: Your control check to play an attack gets +2

4 Battle Prowess (1/4) (Life) E Commit: Gain X vitality. X equals the difficulty of any attack in your opponent's discard pile. Only playable during your opponent's turn.

4 Dark Messiah (3/5) (Air) E Commit: Your Air or Order attack gets +3 damage

3 Karaoke Idol (1/5) (Good) R Commit: After you play an attack, it gets +1 speed

4 Kazama Ninja Arts (3/5 +3L) (Good) R Commit: Before you determine the difficulty needed to block your opponents attack, reduce the difficulty by the printed speed of the attack

4 Inhuman Perception (2/5 +1H) (Air) R Commit, discard 1 card: After your opponent plays a response, cancel its effects.

4 Chinese Boxing (3/4 +3M) E Commit: Commit 1 of your opponent's foundations. It does not ready during your opponent's next Ready Step.

2 The Gorgeous Team ( 3/4 +3H) E Commit: Add 1 foundation from your discard pile to your hand.

1 Stand Off (2/5 +3H) E Commit 2 foundations: Your attack gets +4 damage. Your opponent may commit 2 foundations to cancel this effect.

1 Reclamation (2/5) E Commit: Your attack gets +2 damage

2 Greed's Influence (2/4 +1M) E Commit, commit 1 foundation: Your attack gets +3 damage

1 Tira's Contract (3/5 +1L) R Commit: After you block an attack, that attack deals no damage. R Commit: Before the Block Step of your opponent's attack, choose 1 random card in your momentum and reveal it. If the revealed card has a block that normally could be played, play it (no control check necessary)

1 Light on One's Feet (2/5 +2H) E Commit: Change the zone of this attack to any other

Card Strategy and Breakdown:

Total Cards: 57 (Not currently legal)

Avg Difficulty: 3.49

Avg Control:3.19

The planned strategy of this deck is to toss out an attack, buff the hell out of it, then play Raphael's enhance to give it more speed. For instance, I could play Death Puppet, a 6M9 Throw, respond with the three Karaoke Idols, play Dual Wielding to reduce its speed to 0, but increase its damage by 6, making it a 0M18. After that, I would use the four Dark Messiahs to give it another 12 damage, the Greed's Influences for another 6, Reclamation for another 2, then finally Seal of Alluvium for a total of 22 more damage, making the attack a 0M30. Then, after all that is done, I play Rapael's enhance to make it a 30M30, which is normally unblockable and deals 15 damage anyway, unless it is blocked by Lumber Axe or cancelled another way.

During times I've played this in casual play, it normally takes at least 5 or 6 turns to get all the foundations I need to pump to a decent level, so I'm planning on getting some Giradot's Leadership to help with setting up, since it takes luck out of the factors I need to deal with. Gorgeous Team is in there right now to help with that, but it would help a lot more if I could search my deck for it, and if I replaced Gorgeous Team, then I would only have one Life foundation, which might help with chaining.

I would love to get more Good/Air attacks with high damage and preferably high speed for Dual-Wielding and Dark Messiah fun, but I can't find any in my collection that I don't already have here. I've also noticed a lack of control checks, so I've been thinking of putting Iga Legacy or Rookie's Fortune in this deck to help solve that problem. Recommendations are welcome, but please keep in mind that I don't have very much money to spend on cards, so I can't get the more rare and high-demand cards. Currently, I'm looking at getting three more Seals of Cessation and four Giradot's Leadership.

Dude, Darkness Blade + Dual Weilding/FIght or FLight and Raphaels ability is usually more than enough....

I had this concept built and it really good however it fails to Rejection hard...

NintendoMan said:

I hadn't thought of Fight or Flight, thanks for that. I just kinda want to make sure that its speed is too high to make normal blocking nearly impossible, and the damage bonuses help with that.

I've also noticed that Rejection destroys this deck, but Seal of Cessation does a good job against that. (Well, once I get more, it will.) I think that once I get past that and Tag Along, this deck should work well against other aggro decks.

Thanks for the suggestion, though, I'll see if I can find some Fight or Flights.

NintendoMan said:

Well it's "tri-symbol", which means that's nothing Kung-Fu Training, Distractible, or Prominent Noblewoman can't handle =)

My experience with building Raph is to single symbol and try to spam 4+ foundations a turn, something that a tri-symbol may have problems doing with any degreee of consistency.

The reason being... by the time you pass the attack and do any pumps / (protect your attack) you are looking at many comited foundations, not to mention Raph's abilities require you to further commit foundations to play. i.e. the more foundations you have out to commit the more you can play multiple attacks and turn them all into unblockable attempts to kill.

Solo symbol wind provides you the most consistent spammable foundation base, but you can also do it with life and good if you try a little harder. There are also some pretty nasty readying shenanigans out there nowadays, what with Tira's new terrain and the often-abused Shooting Capoeira.

And, as some have pointed out above, using single pumps like Fight or Flight will help immensely.

Also try low control throws for use on his second ability (i.e. spinta or any 2 check throw). If you are gutsy and use some of life's control check helpers you can go as far as to use Siegfrieds big throw with the 1 control check.

There are also a lot of new answers to rejection (not just skull), andything that stops life gain, anything that stops enhances, stops keywords, etc.

You are on the right track, turn him into a scuessful turn 2/3 killer and you will have a good Raph. Or one that loops controlish attacks... Just depends on your style.

- dut

dutpotd said:

My only problem with building single symbol is that I lose good cards when I go single symbol. If I go solo air, that takes out Fight or Flight and Dual-Wielding. If I go solo good, that takes out Soul of Ling Sheng-Su and the readying shenanigans, and if I go solo life, that takes out a nice chunk of my attacks. That being said, I see your point, as symbol chaining can sometimes slow a deck to turtle speeds if the player is unlucky enough. For now, I think tri-symbol would be a better way to go, since taking out one symbol would take from the deck immensely. I'm currently looking through my collection for Shooting Capoeras, Fight or Flights, and Distractables. I can't think of any life control check modifers at the moment, but if you can find names, that would be great. I've found Iga Legacy and already have Ling Sheng-Su in my deck, so my CC's should be fine.

Another thing I've been thinking about since the deck is coming along to less foundation use per turn is using multiples such as Feline Spike and buffing them, making a possible three 16H16 attacks in one turn, considering I have the right setup.

Also, what would you guys think of adding Lynette's Shop to this deck, or perhaps sideboarding it?

A quick update on my decklist now, based on what I've read here:

Getting rid of:

3 Karaoke Idol

2 Greed's Influence

1 Reclamation

1 Stand Off

4 Dark Messiah

1 Seal of Alluvium

Adding:

4 Distractable

4 Shooting Capoera

4 Fight or Flight

4 Iga Legacy

(maybe Siggy's Unholy Terror, I don't like one controls much)

Total card Gain/Loss: 4 cards gained, making a total of 61 cards

think of using powerful and momentum gen to pump up the damage at that rate and then use his E for the speed boost... or is that just my Raph deck?

listen m8 i've posted my Raphael deck on the forums, and it works. one symbol (good) kill conditions are big cyclone and Ryu's Shin Shoryuken. (big cyclone + fight or flight + Raphael = mid 20 for 20). worth taking a look, it's simple and fast coz of only being one symbol.